Violence Against Indigenous Women: Public and Private Dimensions

Violence, both overt and covert, is central to the lives of many Aboriginal women. The reality of this violence has been masked until now, first, by open intimidation of Black Australian women by the men in their communities who bash and rape and, second, by a more subtle use of racial solidarity arguments that have succeeded in alienating Black women from feminist resources in the wider community. The violence and oppression faced by Black men in Australia have been privileged in a gender-free public debate on race. This privilege has been at the cost of silencing Black women’s voices and making invisible their experiences of rape, incest, bashings, and murders, which mean the Black home is a haven for most men but is an unsafe place, even a prison at times, for Black women and children.